Being close to Fr. Marcelline Jayakody

by W. T. A. Leslie
Fernando - SO June 3 2007

The 105th birth anniversary of Fr.
Marcelline Jayakody OMI, the well-known Catholic priest, musician, poet,
lyricist, author, journalist and patriot falls today June 03, 2007. On this
occasion I would like to present the pleasant memories of my close association
with Fr. Jayakody.

We were small children in 1940's and
1950's, specially around Independence when Fr. Jayakody produced some
magnificent hymns like 'Ronata Vadina Bingu Obay' , 'Nelum Pipeela Pethi
Visireela' and 'Suvanda Jale Pipi Kumudiniye' with a national flavour. Those
fascinating hymns with their superb lyrics, sweet music and national sentiments
captivated the hearts of all. They were appreciated even by non-Catholics.

Being a small boy, I had no idea of the
niceties of the lyrics, their spiritual aspects and cultural adaptation of the
hymns of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody. Nevertheless I was thrilled by the fantastic
melody, simple language and the local setting in them.

In no time these hymns became popular in
churches. They became a must for church feasts and ceremonies, to give them the
festival atmosphere. Even today most of the popular hymns sung in churches are
compositions of Fr. Jayakody.

I could remember the 'Sunday Observer'
conducting a poll to select the leading personality in the film world in 1956.
From the beginning Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was found leading because of his
wonderful lyrics for songs in 'Rekawa'. Fr. Marcelline Jayakody who did not want
to take any undue credit made a declaration that he only wrote the lyrics and
Sunil Santha set the music for them. But it did not make any difference.

We as young students sent in our votes too
in favour of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody and in our youthful exuberance were taken
up by his sincerity.

At the end Fr. Jayakody won the poll
defeating such stalwarts in the Sinhala cinema like Rukmani Devi, B. A. W.
Jayamanne, Laddie Ranasinghe, Sirisena Wimalaweera and Mohideen Baig.

Since then I developed a fancy for hymns,
poems, lyrics, articles and other works of Fr. Marcelline Jayakody, whose prose
was poetry and words were songs. Being a Catholic priest amidst so much humbug
and hypocracy he was truthful, upright and outspoken. An exponent of indigenous
culture he was beaming with national consciousness. I began to admire and
idolize him.

In December 1970 on the arrival of Pope
Paul VI to Sri Lanka, the patriot Fr. Marcelline Jayakody wrote a beautiful set
of verses full of national fervour in the 'Lankadeepa' welcoming the Pope. In
late 1970's I was the chief patron of 'Sama Mihira' a popular Christmas annual,
distributed free. I wanted to re-publish the verses in the 'Sama Mihira' and
liked to change one word in a verse to make it relevant to a subsequent issue.

When I met Fr. Jayakody for the purpose,
he politely declined my request and instead wrote a different set of verses for
the magazine. When it was published in 'Sama Mihira' it was acclaimed by all.
Since then I was able to get prose or verse contributions for 'Sama Mihira'
often from him, Marcelline Jayakody and they adorned the magazine. He was so
kind to oblige with illuminating articles to other magazines as well.

In 1989, I wrote articles to both Catholic
and secular press for the 150th anniversary of Duwa Passion Play. I highlighted
in them that the fame of Duwa Passion Play spread far and wide after Fr.
Marcelline Jayakody revised, re-cast and re-orientated the Passion play and
since then it was considered as the greatest Passion show in Asia.

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody was so considerate
to write to me appreciating the article. That inspired me to write about him who
was the proud boast of Catholics as a national artist.

In 1990, I wrote an article on Fr.
Marcelline Jayakody to the 'Messenger' the Catholic weekly for his birthday on
June 3. In that I described the damage done to the hymns of Fr. Marcelline
Jayakody in some cassettes by noisy interlude music, drowning of superb lyrics,
horrible and irritating singing, out of tune. I made a request to the Church
authorities to take some measures to stop this stealing and commercialisation.
Fr. Marcelline Jayakody while thanking me for the article wrote to me that the
Church authorities are not concerned and they would not do anything about it. As
expressed by Fr. Marcelline Jayakody nothing came out of my agitation.

I was wondering whether it had embarrassed
Fr. Marcelling Jayakody. To my relief Fr. Marcelling Jayakody wrote to me - "I
saw Fr. Marcelling Jayakody featuring in the middle page in the Daily News Thank
you very much. Your article looked like a statue cut in marble with every detail
faithfully recorded. Your pen is shaping well. "Need I say how happy I was?

Fr. Marcelline Jayakody wrote a marvellous
foreword that enthraled the readers to my first book to see the light of the day
- 'Reflections on a Changing Society'. When I presented him the first copy in
1997 he remarked "All this time you were appreciating my contributions. I am
happy that I lived to admire your work," with tears in his eyes. He passed away
after a couple of months on January 1998.

In my leisure I recall the memories of my
association with Fr. Marcelline Jayakody with pleasure. I have preserved all the
letters he has sent to me and they are a treasure to me.

I consider it a great achievement to have
enjoyed the cordiality and compliments of the genius Fr. Marcelline Jayakody.